


Aim High

by Daiako (Achrya)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Quirks (My Hero Academia), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, First Meetings, Injury, M/M, Minor Violence, On Hiatus, Slow Burn, Teenage Dorks, Wings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-17 09:32:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14185998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achrya/pseuds/Daiako
Summary: Hinata Shouyou was born with wings but in a world where 80% of people have some sort of power, called Quirks, wings are pretty far from impressive. It's not much compared to the powers of Pro Heroes and that's fine, Hinata isn't even sure he wants to be a hero.All he knows for certain is that he wants to get into Karasuno High and become not just part of it’s once great (but now far less great) Hero Run team, but it's Ace. The first step? Passing his hero training exams without punching Kageyama Tobio in the face.An AU where things are very different while still being very much the same.





	1. Why Wings Suck, A Study By Hinata Shouyou

**Author's Note:**

> Hero Run is a made up sport (obviously) that's part obstacle course, part battle against the environment, fake villains, and the other team, where the objective is to make it from one end of the course to the other, save a many people as possible, neutralize threats, and not cause a bunch of property damage. (Spoiler: That last one is probably where Karasuno is gonna have issues) To participate on the student level one must be in their high school (or Junior High's) hero course and have their Student Quirk Use certificate. 
> 
> This is chapter one, of part one of what I hope to be a series. It will focus on the first years as they take their SQU exam and, uh, piss each other off.

Hinata Shouyou was born with wings. It was a bit surprising, as no one on his family had displayed wings for a few generations but not wholly unexpected. He had a great grandmother on his mother's side who'd had a harpy quirk and a whole series of relatives of his father’s side who'd had some bird traits. The nature of Quirks being what it was there some logic to his mother, with her telescopic vision, and his father with his talons and beak, being able to revitalize the wing mutation. 

That said it was inconvenient for his poor mother, who had to carry and give birth to a child with wings almost as big as their body. It was, according to her, worse than carrying twins, especially when he started moving around and stretching his wings. And the amount she'd had to eat to support all that growth was still the stuff of many a family dinner story. 

Still, as inconvenient as it all was Hinata and his downy charcoal baby wings were immediately adored by his parents and just about everyone else who laid eyes on him. Except Hinata, himself who grew to find them entirely frustrating. They needed a lot of accommodating to deal with, especially as he grew and they grew with him. They were huge, his wingspan nearly double his height, and while they could be folded down against his back they nearly swept the floor when they were.

First there were the major moults, once at the age of six and again at thirteen, where the soft and shorter feathers of his youth moulted to be replaced with longer and sleeker ink black ones. And even just normal feather loss, with time and the seasons, was annoying. The cleanup was a pain and so was the grooming that became needed with the adult feathers. They needed to be straightened nightly, the oil that coated them cleaned away carefully to keep it from building up but without stripping them, and the skin moisturized to keep it flexible and supple. When he was younger he'd spend every night seated in front of his mother, letting her preen his feathers with her fingers and a special pick but at a certain age a boy didn't want his mom doing that sort of thing. He was too old for her to brush his hair and so too old for her to straighten his feathers. 

Even if it did take twice as long to do it himself. And he kind of missed the quiet, soothing nighttime ritual. 

Then there was the size and unwieldy nature of wings in general. They were too big for just about everything and by his second molting his family had been forced to renovate the house for him. Doorways were widened and the entire back half of the first floor changed into a large bedroom with an extra large bed and attached bathroom, with an overly large shower and scrubbing area that still just barely allowed him to fully extend a single wing at a time. He couldn't sleep in any position except in his stomach, had to use special low backed, but slightly elevated chairs in school, which meant he was always in the back if the class.

Plus all of his shirts had to specially altered to fit. His mother learned to sew and construct clothing so he'd had something to wear without paying exorbitant fees. All of his shirts and jackets had to partially open in the back and able to be put on in spite of his wings, which meant a lot of things seen into halter type collars, and buttoning or zipping together under his wings, or along the shoulders. Some of his fancier stuff had laces, because his mom thought that was cute or something, but honestly he thought that was way too much work. Zippers were much easier. 

Growing pains were, whenever he had a growth spurt, the worst. His back and chest muscles would ache for days, sore no matter what he tried to do. Sometimes he swore even his bones were in hurting him. 

And the biggest problem with his wings was that he couldn't fly, or so his physician had insisted all his life. They were a ‘cosmetic’ mutation, not his actual quirk, supposedly. His actual quirk was in his hollow bones, unique flexibility, and sharper than human sight and hearing. But it was unlikely he'd ever, considering his short and lean stature, have the muscle tone and strength fly even though he was technically built for it. The muscles, ligaments, and joints attached right and worked, he could move, flex, open, and stretch them just fine but that was likely to be all he ever managed. 

He hadn't liked it but, after a few attempts at jumping off of the roof ended in broken bones and the tears of his parents and sister, he accepted it for what it was. 

Tried to anyway. There was no denying that sometimes he looked up and felt a strange almost hungry feeling inside, even when he had just eaten. He dreamed about flying sometimes and woke up with an itch under his skin that nothing could banish. He wanted to fly, he really did, but…

And then he saw someone else fly. It was a chance thing, riding his bike home from school one day when he saw a game on the tv. Hero Run, a sport that had gotten popular in the past ten years or so but that he’d never paid much attention to before, being played by two high school teams. They were about midway through the game, shown on a split screen as they ran through the simulated ruins of an flood and landslide disaster. Something happened, he’d know later it was that a ‘rescue oppuntinity’ had arisen in the form of someone trapped in a rushing stream of rock and mud below where the team was, and one of the players in the dark blue and orange uniforms backed up, took a running leap into a gust of wind directed his way by one of the other players and *flew*. 

Well, actually he fell, fast. 

He was small, dark haired with a 10 on his back and, as he tumbled through the air, four wings made of shimmering iridescent light unfolded from his back. They stretched and snapped and the boy jerked back at they caught him. With one mighty flap he stabilized and then glided down to the rescue point. 

Hinata couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move, couldn’t blink, couldn’t think, as he watched number 10 spiral down. 

He wanted that. 

He needed that. 

He…he could do that!

He was going to do that!

The moment he decided that in his head there was no going back. 

But it wasn’t as easy a thing as he might have thought. Very few junior high schools had Hero Run teams, since it was dangerous and required special staff oversight, there was a lack of coaches since it was a new sport, students needed quirk usage permission from the prefecture which meant taking part in an exam that was held once a year, and a bunch of other stuff to get it rolling. And he was only one person, literally. There was no one else in the club, save some fanboys of the sport with no interest in actually playing, and that was…well, it was a team sport. That wouldn’t work. 

Still he was determined and did his best to recruit while working on what he could do about his own problem. He read everything there was on Karasuno number 10, the one they called The Tiny Giant. He read every interview, every article, every posting on every fanboard, and applied everything he learned. He ate the same foods, did the same weight training, focused on the muscles in his chest, back, and sides, did the same cardio, and then some; he came home sore more often than not, but he didn’t let that stop him. He ate. And ate. And ate. 

He read every book on flight and wings there was. It wasn’t the most uncommon of quirks, and there was a lot on it because no one was really born knowing how to fly, and he absorbed it all. 

He studied up on Hero Run, trying to get a better handle on the sport he’d never cared about before. Trying to find where he would fit. Learning about the roles, Support, Tank, Grounder, Control, Damage, and finally the Ace. Usually a Damage spot but not just *a* damage dealer, *the* damage dealer. The one everyone relied on to clear paths, get points, to see the right path, and to be the strongest person on the team. That was what the Tiny Giant was. 

That. That was what he was going to be.  

Interest in Hero Run opened up a whole new interest in Pro Heroes too. He’s never considered himself the hero type, since he didn’t have some flashy or strong quirk, but as he got deeper into all the hero stuff he saw there was more to it than that. By the time his third year rolled around he hero posters on his wall, much to his mother’s amusement. Pro Hero Deku was his favorite, and occupied most space on his wall than anyone else. The hero’s story of being a late bloomer, quirk wise, and having to learn control and discipline when he was high school age (years after most people had their quirks learned inside and out) resonated with him. If that guy could get it together and go one to be one of the top heroes in Japan then Hinata could play Hero Run. He could learn to fly. 

Maybe there was even a shot at being a pro hero for him after. Not all heroes had to be the boom, pow, face smashing type, as it turned out. There were rescue focused heroes, support heroes, underground heroes. There was a whole world of things out there that he’d never known about, beyond (or beneath, maybe) the shiny world of Top Heroes blasted all over cereal boxes and the TV, and there could be a spot for him. 

Maybe. He had time to figure it out.

For now he just had to get his High School Quirk use permissions with enough points to get into Karasuno’s (admittedly very small and not all that impressive) hero program, plus pass their entrance exam, get onto the Hero Run team (also not very impressive anymore) starting lineup without ever having actually played a game, and prove he was the best. 

And learn to fly.

Simple enough. 

Except for the part where he never quite managed it, in spite of the effort of friends like Yukitaka and Sekimaukai, who helped he trained and worked out with him in spite of being interested in other sports. By the time more people were interested, in Hinata’s third year, it was too late to find a coach and take the permission exam. He was disappointed but stuck through the year all the same, helping the first years who’d joined up better establish the club and arrange to actually play in some games next year. 

Next year would be different for all of them. 

\---

“Shouyou,” His mother called, stopping him from racing out of the house to jump on his bike. Today was the day of exam to find out if he could get into a hero course in high school, and be allowed to join a Hero Run team. It was in the Sendai City Gymnasium and he needed to leave roughly five minutes ago, to ride to school. Everyone in his junior high who was signed up for the exam, mostly third years about to graduate on to high school, would be taking a van together. 

Unless he missed it. 

He made an impatient noise which only earned him a soft smile as she crossed the front entrance. His mother ran a hand over his head, smoothed out the collar of his blazer, and then sighed. 

“I wish I could come see-” He made a face; he couldn’t imagine anything he wanted to happen less. “But since I can’t I wanted to wish you good luck, and remind you that...everyone isn’t cut out to do everything, so play to your strengths when you’re out there. Don’t get hurt.” 

He nodded rapidly. “Got it! Be safe, play smart, good luck! Okay? Okay, bye!” He hugged her quickly, called a goodbye to Natsu, and barreled through the front door to get to his bike. He felt lighter than air, like he could take off and fly at any moment. 

Today was going to change everything. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character Highlight  
> Hinata Shouyou  
> Quirk: Avian Adaption  
> Quirk Type: Mutation  
> Hinata was born with wings, 'hollow' bones, telescopic vision on par with that of birds of prey, and super human hearing (though more in the vein of hearing changes in pitch and tone and separating out noise, sense. Also in the: Any little noise woke him up as a baby and his parents were so so grateful Natsu only has talons and bird-like feet, sense.) As a result Hinata is much lighter than the average human, even with the addition of wings, and this probably contributes to his speed and agility, which are ranked on the edge of 'super human' but aren't quite. Might have the potential for flight, though his childhood physician seems to think his muscles will never develop the strength (The reason for this is, another effect of his quirk, Hinata burns calories extremely fast and extremely efficiently, leading his doctor to believe he'd never be able to consume enough for any significant muscle growth.)  
> Hinata also has a hyper effective respiratory, digestive, and circulatory system and, less interestingly, extra oil producing glands in his wings, which (along with regular preening and grooming) make them water resistant.  
> Known weaknesses (as relates to hero run): Hinata has no enhanced strength or offensive Quirk and while he is very fast, agile, and has impressive stamina none of these traits are above what could be expected from a very athletic first year high school student or unreachable with training, which makes his place as a 'Damage Dealer' a bit questionable.  
> Absolutely no significant combat experience. It's doubtful he's ever thrown a punch in his life, how he intends to be useful for taking out/neutralizing threats is a mystery.  
> No rescue or disaster training.  
> His ability to fly is questionable


	2. All Things Being Unequal, a rant by Yamaguchi Tadashi

Tadashi was surprised to find his mother waiting by the door with Tsukishima. She was holding his school bag and already wrapped lunchbox and smiling at him but he knew by the set of her shoulders and the tension around her mouth that it wasn’t a real smile. The truth hung around her in the air, painted in sickly browns and bruised greens.

“Are you sure about this?” She asked, voice pitched low, when she met him at the bottom of the stairs and offered him his things. He looked down at her, meeting eyes near identical to his own, and read the doubt in them as plainly as if someone had written her thoughts out.

His heart skipped a beat. He nodded. “I can’t back out now.”

Not when he’d already done the paperwork and used all the allowance he’d saved up to take this exam, and Tsukishima was here waiting, and Akiteru had already agreed to drive them to Sendai. And...and he wanted to. He wanted to do this more than he could remember wanting to ever do anything else in his entire life.

The colors around her darkened and became shot through with an ugly purple that melted into the greens and browns. She touched his shoulder, the weight gentle and crushing. “Of course. Well, if it doesn’t work out there’s no shame in that so don’t...don’t think anyone will think any less of you.”

The air in his lungs escaped him and for one long terrible second he couldn’t breathe in to replace it. He was stuck, suffocating and smothered and on the edge of flying apart at the seams, starting at where his mother’s hand was squeezing his shoulder. He hadn’t expected anything else from her but it was painful all the same. Ice shards grew in his chest, cracked and shifted at they sank in deep. He always felt like this when they talked about high school, the exams, or his future, a frigid ache he couldn’t escape no matter how hard he tried.

He clutched the strap of his bag and made himself nod again. Her eyes stayed fixed on his face for another beat and then she stepped away, hand dropping to her side. No one else came to see him off, even though he could see his father and grandfather sitting at the kitchen table, nursing their cups of coffee as they talked quietly, and nothing else was wait until he and Tuskishima were walking down the walkway to where Akiteru was waiting in his car.

“You better pass this exam.”

Tadashi cut his eyes to the side, lips twitching upwards. Tsukishima wasn’t looking at him, and his voice was as bored as it ever was. It was more of a threat than encouragement but some of the ice in his chest melted away all the same.

He breathed in. “I will!”

-

_Tadashi tripped over his feet and landed on the ground with a thump. The boys surrounding him laughed even harder than they already were and crowded closer, loomed over him. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, they liked to follow him home and call him names and remind him that he might as well be quirkless, but today felt worse than normal. They’d swarmed him in the park, pushed him around and kept him from slinking away and even though he knew that letting them see him cry would only make it worse (it always made it worse) it was happening anyway. His eyes were hot, his chest hurt, and his nose was running._

_He hated them so much. Hated their stupid quirks and the names they called him and that no one would do anything to help because their quirks were better than his. It wasn’t his fault, he hadn’t asked for such a bad quirk, he wanted something cooler, he hated being weak when everyone else was so strong. He didn’t need them to tell him that he couldn’t do anything and that his quirk was stupid._

_He already knew it, just like he knew that crying didn’t help._

_He sniffled, shrinking in one himself as the other boys stepped close; he saw all the things they were thinking and planning written in the air around them, as if they were drawing on paper, surrounded by notes. He knew they wanted to see him cry, again, and to be able to go to school tomorrow and tell everyone that he was a quirkless crybaby but for all that he tried to stop it the tears spilled._

_“Lame.” A bored voice said._

_The other boys turned and moved apart enough for him to see a taller boy with blond hair and classes. Tadashi’s mouth dropped open as the air filled up around the boy, words overlapping and jumbling together as his quirk activated on it’s own, telling him too many things to take in all at once. He’d never seen a person who said so much before except on TV when he watched heroes being interviewed._

_“What did you say?” One of Tadashi’s classmates asked, stomping forward._

_The boy lifted his chin, staring down; his eyes flashed behind his glasses, from brown to sparkling gold and back. He looked past Tadashi’s classmates to look at him directly when he repeated himself. “Lame.”_

_The air shimmered and *more* spilled out, too fast for Tadashi to even try to read but it didn’t matter. He already knew everything he needed to know._

_This boy was the kind of person he wanted to be._

\---

Quirks, Tadashi had learned early, were not all created equally. People, adults, liked to say otherwise; he had lost track of how many times a teacher or relative had told him that no quirk was better than another or that they were all special in their own way but eventually he realized that people thought they had to tell him that meant that there was something wrong with his. People with great quirks didn’t need to be told that they were special because they already knew it, and people with quirks that could be made strong with effort and training were told just that. It was people like him who got the ‘Every quirk is good’ treatment.

His wasn’t strong or flashy or bold, it wasn’t something he could fight with, it would never turn anyone’s head. Some people were told early on that they had quirks made for hero work, abilities so perfect, so impressive, that it was impossible to imagine them doing anything else. Those lucky ones were practically groomed from the time their quirks manifested, praised and told how great they were going to be, reminded to keep their eyes on the prize, allowed leeway in other areas for the sake of their futures. Tadashi had seen it play out with a few different kids in his elementary and middle school, all while he was told he was just as good.

But not good enough for anyone to ever tell him he was born to be a hero or encourage him when he said that was what he wanted to do. Instead he was smiled at indulgently, told it was good to have dreams, and sent on his way. It would take time to see that for the dismissal that it was, to understand that they were subtly guiding him away from what they saw as impossible without being cruel.

In a way that was worse than if he’d just been told to give up because he’d floated along, believing in himself until other kids had picked up on how useless his quirk was and started teasing him.

Kids had a way of putting people in their place like nothing else could and Tadashi had realized by his third year that his place was below the other kids. While other kids were showing off their plant control skills by making grass grow or moving things with their telekinesis or learning ways to make light absorption work Tadashi had been laughed at and pushed around. He hadn’t even had friends until he’d met Tsukishima.

Tsukki had a quirk that everyone thought was impressive. He’d been one of the ‘destined for hero work’ kids all his life, as far as Tadashi could tell. It was a two fold quirk, a mix of his mother’s Uncanny Geometry and his father’s Elemental Flare. All-Seeing Eye, which allowed him to see...everything. Perfect spatial awareness, allowing him to see the world as lines and angles and possibilities, to read between what was or wasn’t plain to everyone else, mixed with being able to freeze things with his eyes. He was strong, naturally so, and would only get stronger with time and work.

Akiteru had Elemental Eye, allowing him to create and manipulate the elements but only through his eyes which was, according to him, not nearly as cool as it sounded. And made his eyedrop bill massive, something Tsukishima had in common with him.

It was nothing like Tadashi’s Information Overload, best described as the ability to read and understand anything put in front of him. There was no physical element to it, nothing he could work out to make better, no next level to attain. There was nothing for him to show others and no way for him to explain what he did that made sense to other people so, in the end, he’d been labeled not just quirkless but someone who was lying about it.  Other kids didn’t care that he could read Kanji flawlessly or had picked up English instantly. They didn’t understand what good being able to hear radio static as a proper signal was and neither did Tadashi, honestly.

There was just no way around the fact he wasn’t gifted in the quirk department.

But he’d joined the community junior Hero Run team anyway, not letting his parents talk him out of it or listening to anyone’s ‘wouldn’t it be better to let that spot go to someone who could do more’. It might have been but he’d had his reasons to be on the team. He’d never actually gotten to play, and hadn’t expected to, but Tsukishima had been part of it and it had been enough for Tadashi to watch his teammates and hang out with Tsukki.

There was no sitting on the bench or hanging back in this.

The Entrance Exams for Hero Courses, and to be allowed to join a Hero Run club, couldn’t be passively gotten through. He was out of the running for battle points by the nature of his quirk, he doubted he was going to be beating any of the simulated enemies no matter how hard he tried, and that meant he’d be battling for rescue points only. A few years ago even that much would have been impossible for him, since most exams had been judged by sheer fighting power, and he would had been guaranteed not to pass. But things were changing, with some heroes pushing for more emphasis on varied skills to keep non-traditional quirks from being overlooked, and Tadashi was hoping that was where he’d find his niche.

But as he trailed Tsukishima through the entrance hall of the stadium and took in what had to be hundreds of other kids Tadashi realized finding a spot for himself was going to be harder than he’d imagined. But if he wanted to be on the Hero Run team, and get into Karasuno’s hero course, he was going to have to find a way.

He wished, not for the first time, that he could have had guaranteed admittance like Tsukishima, who had referral letters from his brother and hero duo parents, but no one gave things like that to quirk users like him. And maybe it was better this way, where he’d finally get a chance to show everyone there was more to him than they wanted to think.

He hoped there was at least. And if there wasn’t then...then he was just going to have to find a way for there to be.

“There’s so many people.” He breathed out as they passed another clump of anxious looking kids talking amongst themselves.

Tsukishima shrugged. “This is for the whole prefecture.”

“Y-yeah.” Tadashi muttered. He already knew that but it was still...a lot.

There were no dedicated hero schools in Miyagi but, rather, schools had small and selective classes that students interested in hero work could opt into. Not all high schools had hero courses though, which meant it was competitive to get in. Add in that schools with good Hero Run teams only considered those with good exam scores and it meant that competition was sure to be fierce. Everyone here was ready to fight not just to pass but for a high ranking that would make them stand out and help their chances at whatever school they had their eye on.

That Karasuno was no longer considered a top school was about the only thing in Tadashi’s favor. As long as he passed he’d probably be accepted.

“Look.” Tsukki said, hand darting out to stop him from walking on. He followed his friend’s gaze to a corner of the hall, where a boy was standing all alone, leaning against the wall and looking around blankly. He was dark haired, sharp eyed, taller than Yamaguchi by the looks of things, and kind of scary looking to be honest. There was something intense about him, in the shadows around his eyes and the set of his jaw, that made Tadashi want to activate his quirk and look harder.

He didn’t do it. He’d long since learned his lesson about looking at people, outside of practice, without permission. As his powers had developed and he’d learned more about what he was seeing, and began to describe the kaleidoscope of colors, words, and images he’d found that it made almost everyone uncomfortable. No one wanted to be read like they were a book and it didn’t matter that he couldn’t see their thoughts or secrets because he could see enough. Too much, according to his mother who has passed on a variation of her Perfect Empathy, but broader and turned up to alarming levels, to him.

She was the one person he couldn’t turn off his sight for. Information flowed between them endlessly no matter how much he wished he could look at her and see nothing.

Invasion of privacy was what a counselor had told him.

Creepy, was what the kids he went to school with said.

Tadashi had yet to decide if that was better or worse than ‘weak’ and ‘useless’.  

“He’s from Kitagawa. He was on their Run team.”

Tadashi’s mouth opened in a O of surprise. There were only a few junior highs with teams, the risk of injury and the money needed to properly gear and train was too much for most schools to consider, but he knew enough to know Kitagawa was one of them. And was a really good team, he was pretty sure. He wasn’t as interested in that stuff as Tsukishima was but he’d gleaned a little over time.

“His teammates forced him off the field during one of their tournament games.” Tsukki added, eyes shimmering gold. “Supposedly he’s some kind of tyrant and impossible to play with.”

“Oh.” Tadashi looked at him again. “Do you know what kind of quirk he has.”  
Tsukishima hummed, eyebrow lifting. “You could just look. He’s the competition, so I think it’s okay to break your rule.”

Tsukishima thought it was stupid to not use his quirk whenever he wanted. Tsukki didn’t limit himself, using his perception whenever it was useful, but Tadashi saw their quirks as very different things. Similar in some ways but different where people were involved.

Tadashi shook his head. “You know that isn’t how it works.”

He’d get plenty of data, about height and weight and physical strength, glean things from the way he moved and carried himself, but he wouldn’t know anything about his quirk unless he used it. And, even then, it would just be...data. Tadashi wouldn’t know how to make sense of it if it wasn’t something he’d never seen before. That was the limit of Information Overload; he could get all the information in the world, and his brain would break it down into words he understood, but it was meaningless without some kind of context.

He could look at the fundamentals of a computer program and know what it wall was, but he didn’t know how it worked or what it was mean to do until he saw it in action.

“Enhancement.” Tsukishima said, tone thoughtful. “He kicks other people’s quirks into overdrive, but no one on his team could handle it without burning out.” He paused; Tadashi could imagine his brows knitting together and eyes returning to their usual brown. “Look out for him, he’ll be going for rescue points too. He can’t do anything on his own.”

“Okay Tsukki.” Tadashi murmured, pulling his gaze away from his ‘competition’ to smile up the blond. “I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Fading into the Backround can be Literal, a thesis by Yachi Hitoka. 
> 
> And a character highlight for Yamaguchi will be there as well. He has a quirk that's hard to write up but I didn't want to delay the chapter anymore so here we are.


End file.
